The present invention relates to protective frame structure for the interior walls of buildings and, more particularly, to building structures such as warehouses or barns where the walls consist of panels such as sheet metal that are secured to a skeletal frame.
In many industrial storage environments, it has become common practice to construct warehouses by casting a concrete floor and then erecting a support frame which usually consists of I-beams which extend generally vertically from the floor and span the roof of the structure. Between the I-beams, on the exterior thereof, spanning girders or wall support members are erected to which the sheet metal panels are attached as by bolting or welding to enclose the structure.
While such structures have enjoyed widespread use due to the relative ease and speed with which they can be constructed, damage to the sheet metal panels as a result of collision with industrial trucks, loading equipment or falling materials stored within the warehouse has required expensive repair operations which have sometimes resulted in the loss of the use of the entire warehouse while the repair operations were being carried out.
Since the chief attractiveness of these warehouse structures is the speed with which they can be constructed and the low maintenance and construction costs, relative to the volume of space enclosed thereby, designers of such structures have long sought inexpensive yet effective means for preventing separation of the sheet metal panels due to industrial accidents.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a protective interior frame for such structures which can be easily assembled and disassembled and yet one which will minimize if not eliminate damage to the sheet metal panels constituting the walls of the warehouse from the type of industrial accidents that have occurred in the past in such structures.
In a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides a protective frame which is spaced a selected distance inwardly from the inner surface of the sheet metal wall panels and which can withstand the forces generated as a result of collision with an industrial truck operating at least at normal speeds on the order of 5 m.p.h.
The protective frame of the present invention is adapted to cooperate with the interior support columns of warehouses and, thus, the invention provides a grid structure consisting of vertical posts evenly spaced between adjacent beams of an existing structure as well as cross members which are spaced vertically, preferably evenly, along the posts to a desired height along the wall of the structure. The cross members are secured at their ends to the adjacent beams or girders of the building and are also provided with reinforcing trusses which span substantially the entire length of each cross member between the adjacent beams. Additionally, the reinforcing members include connecting means for securely attaching the cross members to the vertical posts at each intersection of a cross member with a vertical post of the protective frame. Further, according to the present invention the cross members are disposed interiorly of the vertical post so that it is the vertical posts that are disposed between the cross members and the sheet metal walls of the building.
With such an arrangement, where a collision occurs either from falling material or from collision with industrial vehicles such as a fork lift truck, the truss means of each cross member and the interconnections of the cross members to both the vertical posts and the beams of the existing structure will distribute the collision forces over substantially an entire grid structure so that the collision force will be absorbed thereby and prevent the colliding object from reaching the relatively lightly secured sheet metal panels constituting the walls of the building.
From the description that follows, it will also be seen that a distinguishing feature of the present invention is the ease and speed with which it can be assembled in an existing warehouse and the relatively low cost that will be involved in producing and installing such a protective frame.
The foregoing and other advantages will become apparent as consideration is given to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: